Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Sit at Home Order: Its Socio-Economic Implications on Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is rated as one of the poorest nations in the world as over 80 % of its citizens live below poverty level. This percentage of the citizens depend on their daily earnings to be able to take care of their family members in terms of feeding, health care services, payment of school fees among others. This daily earnings were shortened by the Indigenous People of Biafra with their mandatory sit at home order on Mondays and every other day that their leader would be appearing in court in the whole of five South East States. This followed the arrest and detention of the leader of IPOB; Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the federal government of Nigeria. The broad objective of this paper is to examine the socio- economic implications of this sit at home order on the poor citizens of South East States of Nigeria with focus on Ebonyi State; a state rated as the poorest among the five states of the South East. The theory that anchored the study is the optimal constraint theory while quantitative research design which made use of survey method was employed to accomplish the purpose of the study. The data for the study were collected through structured questionnaire items and focus group discussion. 400 respondents were purposively selected from the study area. Four points Likert type scale was employed in data collection and to measure the magnitude of the responses. Data collected were analyzed using percentages. The three formulated hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square. The findings show that the sit at home order has made the people of South East States especially Ebonyi State poorer with its chain effect on school drop-out, joblessness and increased insecurity. The paper recommends among other things that Governors of the five South East States should discuss with all the different groups and factions of IPOB to understand the implications of their order on the people they meant to protect and call off the order, while the governors should as well dialogue with the federal government for the release of Nnamdi Kanu.